MassDOT eyes removing Brightman Street Bridge bascules

After work crews pinned the drawbridge of the old Brightman Street Bridge in an upright position three weeks ago, in response to a broken crank shaft, Massachusetts Department of Transportation officials recently said they plan to remove the heavy bascules of the shuttered bridge in the next few months.“Th...

After work crews pinned the drawbridge of the old Brightman Street Bridge in an upright position three weeks ago, in response to a broken crank shaft, Massachusetts Department of Transportation officials recently said they plan to remove the heavy bascules of the shuttered bridge in the next few months.

“The first step is to solicit bids for the removal of the leaves,” MassDOT spokesman Michael Verseckes said.

They’re also planning to study how the structurally deficient, century-old, nearly 1,000-foot bridge across the Taunton River might be fortified and reopened, as planned, for emergency vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists.

In a related development, four MassDOT workers who had been manning the drawbridge 16 hours a day were “reassigned to other maintenance duty,” effective Tuesday morning, Verseckes said. He said they were reassigned to work in District 5, which is the SouthCoast region.

Three of those bridge operators were paid $38,000 a year, and a fourth, at a higher classification, had been earning $41,000 to raise and lower the drawbridge, Verseckes confirmed.

He said MassDOT had planned to reassign them after Aug. 26, when crews, a week after finding the cracked shaft, locked the bridge’s two leaves in an open position.

For the prior week, the drawbridge was closed.

The workers’ reassignment, however, came one day after a Providence television station reported an annual cost for MassDOT to retain the four operators of $156,227. Verseckes called that salary total “accurate.”

When asked if they had other duties besides raising the drawbridge, between the hours of 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. every day, Verseckes said, “That’s it.”

Previously, when vessels were unable to pass under the bridge’s approximately 30-foot clearance, MassDOT operators had a two-hour period to respond to a call, he said.

He noted the frequent raising of the drawbridge before the recent repair problem — in July, it was raised 85 times to accommodate 78 pleasure, five fishing and six motor vessels. It was raised 79 times in June, 48 in May and seven in April.

With the leaves in an upright position, no operators are necessary, he said.

The Brightman Street Bridge, built in 1908, has been closed since October 2011, when the Veterans Memorial Bridge opened.

The solicited bids to remove the leaves will determine the cost and the lowest bidder, Verseckes said. He did not have cost estimates and said the bid process should take about three months.

“For a short-term perspective, the current situation is acceptable. But for the long term, it is not,” he said.

He said MassDOT stressed that the study to determine other repair needs is the result of a federal law passed in 2005 on future use of the Brightman Street Bridge.

During the high-stakes battle over a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Weaver’s Cove and the issue of tankers entering the waterway, Massachusetts and Rhode Island congressional leaders joined local opposition to enact a law prohibiting federal funds from being used to demolish the Brightman Street Bridge. The law also required the bridge to be maintained for pedestrians, bicyclists and as an emergency route.

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“Considering its existing structural deficits, the bridge has been closed since the Veterans Memorial Bridge opened,” Verseckes said.